Request for Information (RFI) – Weekly SITREP
I am going to make this a weekly post so that we can use this as a place to make any reports on unusual activity or localized hotspots of trouble. We did this a few times during COVID (here, here, here, and here) but I figured that, as our conditions continue to degrade around the country, it would be useful to bring this back as a regularly recurring topic of discussion.
Post your reports in the comments below.
25 October 2023
General Location: New Jersey
Food Price / Shortages:Â
Fuel Prices / Shortages:Â
Unusual Military Movement:
Civil Unrest / Crime:
Interesting Local News / Events:Â
Public Service Interruptions:
Changes in Patterns of Life:Â
Any additional observations or comments:Â
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About the Author: Patriotman
Patriotman currently ekes out a survivalist lifestyle in a suburban northeastern state as best as he can. He has varied experience in political science, public policy, biological sciences, and higher education. Proudly Catholic and an Eagle Scout, he has no military experience and thus offers a relatable perspective for the average suburban prepper who is preparing for troubled times on the horizon with less than ideal teams and in less than ideal locations.
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GUNS N GEAR
Western New York
Food movement is slow, seeing a lot of waste
C130 is back first time since the early days of GWAT. Pre9/11 they flew treetops in a string of 3 now they fly high alone. Did touch and go at Geneseo warbird field.
Crime: Dollar general unattended car theft is normalized now. People lock up now.
Interesting thing!!! A bad batch of DEF has taken down a lot of local trucks! Tow trucks are running hard and mechanics are seeing a lot of bad nozzles.
Deer hunting has changed. Almost no one is out bow hunting. People are working to pay bills and many didn’t even buy a license. Many farmers have said “last year with a lease” “can’t leave the money on the table”
Great report! Thanks for the info
NW Iowa
Fuel: regular gas $3.24 per gallon
25 October 2023
General Location: Upper New England
Food Price / Shortages: Beef keeps rising, /No shortages
Fuel Prices / Shortages: Diesel is $4.55/ No shortages
Unusual Military Movement:
-Constant aIr tanker fights out of Bangor Maine is a new normal. I have started to see them range much further than normal of late, the longest being over the gulf of Mexico.
– The High altitude balloon traffic continues. As I type this, a pair of them are moving east over the Altantic Ocean. The northernmost one is just below the Southern tip of Nova Scotia and the southern one is 100 miles east of Cape Cod. They were launched 2 days ago from Iowa and appear to be from the Aerostar Corporation. They flew similar routes for the last 2 days which took them over Michigan, across Lake Huron, across southern Ontario and into into New York State and New England. They exited to the Ocean over Portland Maine and Boston Mass. I have seen this traffic elsewhere in the United States (on ADS-B tracking), Similar multistate transits. As I see more of these “missions” I notice that some are registered as US Mil and some as Aerostar.
Civil Unrest / Crime:
Generally steady levels of property crimes. Homeless continue to seek out clandestine locations to camp outside of the towns. Regular scanner traffic reporting people camping in cars in remote places and tents appearing where they should not be. Also many police calls for vacation property checks associated with suspicious/unauthorized vehicles and suspected break ins.
Interesting Local News / Events: None
Public Service Interruptions: None
Changes in Patterns of Life:
Almost every listing in the obituaries this part week was a very premature death. Women in their 50’s and 60’s and men in their 40’s and 50’s. Taken as a whole, with a conservative early death cutoff age of 70 for both sexes, the premature death rate for the week was 80% of the total deaths. The trend has been there for a while, but this is the first time I have seen younger deaths this far in excess of the elderly deaths.
Any additional observations or comments: None
General Location: Greensboro, North Carolina
Food Price / Shortages: No shortages but prices keep going up. It seems that the basics are going up faster. Some food prices including basics have doubled within the last year. Two things that I have noticed. First, stores that would have amazing sales a few times a year no longer have them. The old sales were buy 2 get 3 free type sales. Now the sales are non existent or not saving much. The second item is store branded items seem to be disappearing. I have noticed over the last year that some store brand items are usually low or out of stock. Some have completely disappeared, with no spaces on the shelf.
Fuel Prices / Shortages: Fuel pries are going down here. Regular gasoline prices that I am seeing is between $3.10 and $3.40 a gallon. No shortages to report. A few local stations have had some pumps that are out of service. This is not uncommon but the number of broken pumps I am seeing is high to me. There are a lot of reasons for this and doesn’t indicate a problem.
Unusual Military Movement: I have noticed more military choppers in the air. Not enough activity to be concerned about but an increase. On a side not there are some good size reserve and national guard bases in my AO that conduct massive training exercises a few times a year.
Civil Unrest / Crime: Usual crime is up like in other cities around the country. Small time property crime seems to be up. High number of reports of sheds and backyards being robbed. Nothing violent, mostly snatch and grabs. People need to secure their houses and property.
Interesting Local News / Events: Last Saturday there was a pro Palestine protest on a major road in town. I observed about 100 to 150 people. They were being peaceful, and not causing issues. Most importantly the protesters were staying on the sidewalk and not blocking traffic. I didn’t observe anything violent or a police presence. I didn’t see any arrests related to the event on local media.
Public Service Interruptions: Nothing to report.
Changes in Patterns of Life: More people seem to be on edge after the attack on Israel . I have overheard several conversations about the event and how people need to be more aware. The gun stores are selling more ammo.
Any additional observations or comments: Nothing to add
I have heard that Greensboro is a hub for moving illegal immigrants from the southern border. Can you share any info on that?
In response to your question. All illegal alien with more than 20 years residency in Western North Carolina was arrested while armed at the Canadian border in Vermont about a week ago. He had illegal drugs in addition to weapons. He was parked less then a mile from the border and a local called in the suspicious vehicle. He told the Border Patrol that he just went out for a ride. The location is within the most active infiltration zone in the northeast from Canada. It is probable that someone driving that far to meet a party of illegals coming across is working for the cartels.
I-85 runs through greensboro. I-85 and I-95 are both major corridors for moving illegals, as well as for moving drugs up and down the east coast.
Great report! Appreciate the insight
SW Idaho – Official reports of Ethiopian Muslims praying at a critical infrastructure (dam), a gesture that Muslim terrorists have performed in the past before they strike.
AO: southern Greece
Fuel prices: slightly higher than a few weeks ago, gasoline between eur 2.05 and 2.45/liter, diesel between eur 1.90 and 2.20 /liter.Electricity prices just jumped up significantly, prices here are set by some kind of agreement between the industry cartels and some government players, and are readjusted every few months (quarterly roughly but not strictly speaking), up around 10-15% from the past 6 months or so. Actual final cost to to a residential customer is about eur .25 / kwh (however they like to slice&dice that as power vs transmission vs fees and so on) on a bill that came in this past week. The next bill coming in december will be about .28/kwh.
Food prices/etc: the pattern continues as observed over the past year or so. prices tick a bit higher every so often, various products seem to be coming in supplies coming more sparsely over time – you can generally find most of what youre looking for when they bring a shipment in, and then when it sells out, it might be weeks before you see that item available again. Olive harvest season just began (an important item in the rural greek economy) and so now the much anticipated jump in olive oil prices has been realized, this year the price at the press is eur10/liter. Last year was 7, price in ’21 was 5, in ’20 was below 5, from about 2012-2019 was 3-3.50. last year’s price at 7 was about breakeven for actual local production costs. This year at 10 we expect many people will go harvest trees which were left uncollected for the past decade due to below-costs prices.
Unusual Military Movement: Nothing local to this AO but it is rumored that to the south in Crete the american base at souda has been seeing a greatly increased amount of air traffic.
Not much else new. Greece is sort of an NPC on the world political stage, more or less just taking orders from the bankster camp, and we’re in an out-of-the-way part of greece.
Thanks for the report across the pond, particularly with the airbase report!
For the Olive Oil price, is that the cost per liter of the end product? Here, we mostly have Italian and Spanish olive oils. They run from $20.99/68oz (~2 liters) up to $34/64oz. Greek olive oil is more rare but it can be found locally, mostly tagged as “Mediterranean”.
Stay safe over there!